A splog is a spam blog with copied content from other sources. People usually learn about this scheme by reading the crap advice of internet schemers who sell people on the idea that all they have to do to make money online is build a bunch of copied content to rake in the bucks.

This is total foolishness and the only person making money on the scheme is the schemer that sold you the ebook describing the scheme. Pile on top of that the obvious legal copyright infringement issues, it’s just a total waste of time.

If you want to make money blogging, focus on providing the most value by creating quality original content.

I had a bit of trouble with a splogger recently. He was reposting my content without making it clear that the posts were copies from Tiny House Design. To make matters worse he didn’t give me any backlinks and was hotlinking my images.

I had put up some counter measures the other day to slow him down but he found a work around and posted another one of my articles. While the ROI of thwarting sploggers is essentially zero, I decided the only other thing I could do to stop him was report his splog to his web host, Google AdSense, and some of the other bloggers he’d ripped off (hoping they would file complaints too). I also implemented another round of counter measures to slow down future sploggers.

Finally he sent me a message though Twitter with a weak apology and news that he’d removed my posts from his splog. I really hope this little interaction, and the real possibility of a permanent ban from AdSense, will wake him up. I also hope telling this story will help those who are considering a career of crime and splogging will think twice.

The internet has been my primary source of income for quite some time. Let me tell you… you can work from home and make a lot of money by ethically leveraging your online skills. If you get into scheming you burn bridges and ruin future opportunities.

The best path is to focus on doing something real and publishing it online. People want to read about people doing real things and as your community of real people grows the success will come.